Curators Want Independent Investigation Into Snyder Resignation

Former MU basketball coach Quin Snyder and Athletic Director Mike Alden have different versions of a conversation Snyder had with broadcaster Gary Link the day before Snyder resigned. Snyder contends Alden sent Link to tell him he was fired on February 9. Alden says that wasn’t the intent at all. An investigation into the matter yielded no real answers. In a press release on Thursday, Chancellor Brady Deaton said there were no lies, just miscommunication and it’s time to move on.

Deaton indicated that he felt that none of the three were being dishonest, but that “individual perceptions differ somewhat”.

That’s not good enough for Angela Bennett, President of the MU Board of Curators. She would like to see an independent investigation on the events leading up to Snyder’s resignation on February 10.

“Given that the chancellor has already finished with his investigation and my personal dissatisfaction with the ambiguous report, it’s my opinion that we need to go further with a third party investigation.”

According to a report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, five of the nine curators, including Bennett, want to see an independent investigation.

The Board of Curators doesn’t normally get involved in individual campus matters. Their main concern is issues that involve the entire UM system, which has four campuses in the state. But Bennett indicated that the curators needed to become involved when fellow curator Don Walsoworth’s name was brought into it. Snyder indicated on Tuesday, during his final press conference, that a curator, believed to be Walsworth, approved the decision to have Snyder fired. Walsworth denied that assertion, saying he didn’t know anything of the plan to fire Snyder until he resigned.

Snyder also said that Deaton and MU President Elson Floyd also approved of the plan. They also denied that claim.

The Board of Curators can suggest an independent investigation, but ultimately that decision has to be made by Floyd.